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Brent Patterson

Brent Patterson is the Political Director at the Council of Canadians. He works with the Council's chairperson Maude Barlow, its campaigners, organizers and chapters across the country on trade, energy, water, and health care issues. The Council has political staff in Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Halifax, Delhi, Cape Town and Mexico City. You can follow Brent on Twitter @CBrentPatterson.

UPDATE: Canada-China FIPA to be ratified within days

We only have days to stop the 31-year Canada-China Foreign Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement.

The Globe and Mail reports, "The Harper government will be in a position to ratify a highly controversial investment treaty with China on Thursday (November 1), but is not indicating when it intends to give final endorsement to the deal. …As of Thursday, the government can ratify the deal through an order-in-council, though it now appears that ratification will wait until Mr. Harper returns from an eight-day trip to Asia, which begins Saturday (November 3 and concludes on November 9)."

A recent Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada release states, "All interested parties are invited to submit their comments on the Final Environmental Assessment of the Canada-China FIPA by Sunday, November 11, 2012."